Houston fliers

[Elwyn Aud]

Are all the control-liners near there staying out of the flood?

[frank williams]

Hi Elwyn
I checked around the locals and it seems none of us suffered any home flooding.  However, for those who know Scobee Field in George Bush Park, the field is under water.  Its a flood plain reservoir and its doing its job quite well.  The bulk of the heavy rain was located right over the Katy, TX area which is right at the park.  We can't get in to see the status of the circles, but I assume they are completely underwater this time.  Its happened before and will again I'm sure, but the circles are concrete and will survive.  Pontoons for a RingMaster?
Frank

[Paul Smith]

Most flying fields, including Rouge Park in Detroit, are in waterways or floodplains.  Around here a "waterway" is defined as an area that gets wet so often that it's not even called a "flood".

[frank williams]

I may have spoken too soon about everyone being high and dry.  The water is still rising and I see on TV that Bill Rutherfords neighbourhood is being evacuated.  Apparently Cypress Creek hasn't crested yet and is still rising.  I've called him but I get no answer.  I hope they are OK.

[Dave_Trible]

Any word yet Frank about Bill?  Saw they were taking people out in boats.

Dave

[frank williams]

I talked to Bill yesterday .... he was OK .... his daughters house down the street had some water .... I told him to get his stash of balsa up high ..

[Bootlegger]

        Frank tell Bill to send his "stache" of balsa to me.. LOL...

[bill rutherford]

     Hi Guys
   Thanks for the concern. We had no flooding but it flooded a block away. Got my daughters house some. Spent a day pulling floors up and getting some of the damaged stuff out by the curb. Sad thing is they just put it down about a year ago. There car had water up to the door. She said we only had two payments left/ . There are a lot of people a hell of a lot worse off. Count you blessings .  Bill

[Dave_Trible]

Bill I'm glad you are OK but I'm sure the badger out at Scobie field is real pissed off.

Dave

[frank williams]

The badger better have water wings and a snorkel ..... where you flew last Oct is covered with about 3-4 ft of water ... this is a record high for the park. One nice thing about concrete circles is that they won't likely float away.

[John Leidle]

  Most likely the concrete will remain in tact. In 1985 we had a record flood in the Pacific Northwest I went fishing on the Tolt river after it dropped when got to the mouth I saw the river underminded the road ( asphault) and moved it almost unbroken about 10 feet.. the force of water is enormace .

[Darkstar1]

I'm ok but I just got this shot of the field.Everything including the clubhouse is completely under water.   I guess I better pack for Perth.

[BillLee]

Argh! That's an awful picture, Darrell!

First time Scobee went under water after we built it in 1986, everything hard-surface was covered in very fine silt. Fine, brown. When dry it was like a dust bin. When wet, it was as slippery as ice. The county recognized the liability for slip-and-fall and came out and pressure washed everything that was hard. The concrete circles were back to original state, so white it was like flying on a snow field with the glare and the reflected light sunburns.

Tommy Fluker and I were flying F2C together at the time, needed practice, so we went out with hoses and washed down 1/4 of one circle to have a landing and take-off spot. Next weekend the place was spotless!

One outcome: all of the fire ant nests float to the surface. Big balls the size of a basket ball, masses of live fire ants. But floating on the surface, they were subject to the wind which then blew them off to the edges of the park. For two years we didn't have any fire ants on the flying field at all!

Hope it works out this time.